The Cambridge professor Jason Arday’s remarkable rise through academia has come to an end, @engber.bsky.social writes. He examines Arday’s forthcoming memoir, and finds both implausible details and the makings of a tragic arc:
Icarus in the Faculty Lounge
The Cambridge professor Jason Arday’s unlikely ascent has come to a tragic end.
bit.ly
Sociologist Jason Arday has resigned from Cambridge University after being accused of rampant fraud. Now his very inspiring memoir is about to come out from Simon & Schuster, and it's already an Editor's Pick on Amazon. Something very weird is going on: www.theatlantic.com/books/2026/0...
Icarus in the Faculty Lounge
The Cambridge professor Jason Arday’s unlikely ascent has come to a tragic end.
theatlantic.com
This is so interesting. @engber.bsky.social is such a wonderful and ~consumable~ journalist.
The Thinking About Kids and Heat Has Flipped
Kids are supposed to be uniquely vulnerable to heat, but the data tell a different story.
theatlantic.com
Psychologists Jonathan Haidt and Peter Gray were once allies in the fight against the ONE BIG THING that is destroying children's lives. Then they had a disagreement over which THING, exactly, is the BIGGEST THING of all... www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
What if It’s Not the Phones?
An evolutionary psychologist is challenging the popular understanding of kids and technology.
theatlantic.com
If you’re only thinking about how pesticides affect you or your kids, you’re not seeing the full picture. With this episode I tried to help people widen that aperture.
FoodPrint@foodprintorg.bsky.social · 2mo agoIn our latest podcast episode, we look at the spate of cancer lawsuits against agrichemical companies and ask: Who do pesticides hurt most? Who pays the price? Listen to the episode: foodprint.org/what-youre-e...
"The same person who will pay $900 for microneedling with salmon sperm may refuse a hepatitis B shot for her newborn baby." 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 @engber.bsky.social
Americans Have Entered the Age of the Needle
Americans’ enthusiasm for injection has never been higher.
theatlantic.com
In which the Retraction Watch Database makes it into the Harper's Index. harpers.org/harpers-inde...
The humpback whale that tumbled ashore in Yachats, OR could not be saved, but the people who tried to move it still found meaning in the effort: www.theatlantic.com/science/2026...
They Tried to Move a Whale
A juvenile humpback washed ashore in Oregon. Could local residents save it?
theatlantic.com
Thinking back to the "disappearing scientist" mystery of 2002, in the midst of the anthrax scare, when a bunch of microbiologists died mysteriously over a few months. (It turned out not all of them were microbiologists, the deaths were not actually mysterious, etc) www.nytimes.com/2002/08/11/m...
The Odds of That (Published 2002)
nytimes.com
This is worth reading. @engber.bsky.social on the birth of a new conspiracy theory: www.theatlantic.com/science/2026...
The Single Dumbest Conspiracy Theory of 2026
The “disappearing scientists” story is, in its way, a remarkable achievement.
theatlantic.com
In NYT today, Frank Bruni tells the inspiring story of Woody Brown, a minimally-speaking autistic man who got an MFA at Columbia and then put out a best-selling novel. "How much do we overlook in people," he asks, " ... by making overly hasty judgments?" A very good question. (1 / 2)
Upward Bound, a best-selling debut novel about life in a day-care center for adults with disabilities, is very good. But who wrote it? [gift link] www.theatlantic.com/books/2026/0...
Is Woody Brown the Author of Woody Brown’s Best-Selling Novel?
Upward Bound has gotten rave reviews and celebrity endorsements, but experts question its authenticity.
theatlantic.com
A movie couple that would definitely have a podcast.
Rafe Meager (they/them)@economeager.bsky.social · 4mo agoThis is a movie couple (ok triple) that should definitely have a podcast.
How bad is it, really, to have your whole family infested with blood-sucking parasites? www.theatlantic.com/science/2026...
Don’t Get Sucked Into the War on Lice
It hasn’t been going well.
theatlantic.com
What do you make of this claim: the Inca Empire had a progressive system of taxation in which poor people were encourage to pay in head lice, which served in turn as a public-health intervention.
I wrote about Dario’s Oppenheimer moment and the utopian dreams of the nuclear age www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...
Dario Amodei’s Oppenheimer Moment
It came earlier than expected.
theatlantic.com
The Trump admin has shown a particular interest in animal welfare. Trump worries about windmills killing “our beautiful bald eagles.” Pam Bondi brings dogs to meetings. Animals are wonderful, but as @engber.bsky.social points out, there is probably something more at play here. buff.ly/in8hczH
Donald Trump's administration has taken a more active approach to animal welfare than any other president's in recent memory—which hints at something more widespread in right-wing, nationalist politics, @engber.bsky.social writes:
MAGA’s Animal Nationalism
The Trump administration has a special bond with dogs and cats.
bit.ly
The Trump administration has been working very hard to protect puppies, kittens, even mice from harm. This fits into a long history of animal-welfare activities in ultranationalist movements: www.theatlantic.com/science/2026...
MAGA’s Animal Nationalism
The Trump administration has a special bond with dogs and cats.
theatlantic.com
The "jeans guy" at the gym comes out into the light www.theatlantic.com/health/2026/...
Let’s Talk About RFK Jr.’s Workout Pants
Our health secretary is jeans guy, and he knows it.
theatlantic.com
As a migraine sufferer I am intrigued by the "extra strength" medicine that contains the exact same dosages as the regular-strength
Oof, that scene at the end where Ernest Hemingway gets totally drunk and drives off a bridge www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
Once again "hunker culture" is taking over-- using minor inconvenience as a rationale for buying too much food slate.com/human-intere...
Big Storm Coming—Better Stock Up on Boxed Salad at Trader Joe’s. Wait, What?
It’s mayhem at my local Trader Joe’s right now. The line snakes out onto the sidewalk, and then around the corner. Everyone is desperate to make some...
slate.com
Slate ran a spectacular piece by @engber.bsky.social 15 years ago about a previous generation's obsession with quicksand; it's one of my favorite things ever. www.slate.com/articles/hea...
The rise and fall of quicksand.
The fourth-graders were unanimous: Quicksand doesn't scare them, not one bit. If you're a 9- or 10-year-old at the P.S. 29 elementary school in Brookl ...
slate.com
A generation ago, getting braces was a rite of passage into seventh grade. Now orthodontists are giving palate expanders—meant to keep teeth from crowding—to seven year olds. @engber.bsky.social reports:
An Expander in Every Child’s Palate
A fervor for reshaping young mouths has taken hold in orthodontics. What purpose does it really serve?
bit.ly
Even NASA's potted plants have now withered and disappeared, after money was withdrawn for watering them. This tiny detail, evoking E.T., is one of many to remember from @rossandersen.bsky.social's latest feature... www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
Inside Donald Trump’s Attack on NASA’s Science Missions
During his first year back in office, the president tried to bring America’s age of discovery to an end.
theatlantic.com
This technology sounds nifty but the way they've shoehorned in a fake **octopus** connection is truly outrageous news.stanford.edu/stories/2026...
New material changes color and texture like an octopus
Stanford researchers have developed a flexible material that can quickly change its surface texture and colors, offering potential applications in camouflage, art, robotics, and even nanoscale bioengi...
news.stanford.edu
So...my undergrad thesis student is doing a quality analysis of studies found in meta-analyses. She identified a few and we contacted the authors to request their effect sizes and other variables for the studies in their papers. Here's what happened: scientiapsychiatrica.com/index.php/Sc...
The Impact of Social Media on Adolescent Mental Health: A Meta-Analysis | Scientia Psychiatrica
Introduction: The proliferation of social media has raised significant concerns about its potential effects on the mental health of adolescents. This meta-analysis aims to provide a comprehensive asse...
scientiapsychiatrica.com